E-Who-Dead

Bruce Springsteen fans heaved a sigh of relief last week when Max Weinberg's temporary replacement took the stage with the band in Asbury Park for a handful of songs during their rehearsal shows. It eased things slightly that Weinberg's 18-year-old son Jay had already rocked Giants Stadium last summer during the "The Boss's" New Jersey run. By all accounts Jay had the chops to hold his own with the mighty E Street Band.

Max, who'll be missing some of the band's European dates due to scheduling conflicts with the new Conan O'Brien Tonight Show kickoff, recalled to Rolling Stone how Jay ended up with one of the most coveted gigs in all of rock: "(Bruce called) he wanted to talk to Jay. He said to him, 'Jay, this is Bruce. You may have heard I have a band. In that band I have the world's greatest drummer, who has a scheduling conflict. He gave me your name and number and suggested that I call you to see if you'd be interested in playing with me and the E Street Band.'"

Max added that, "The torch has been passed to a new generation, so to speak. Temporarily, I might add. Because I'm not giving up my job yet."
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Pete Townshend isn't making any promises, but when he wraps up his current writing cycle, there might be some new material perfectly suited for the Who.

Townshend, who's currently on tour with the band Down Under, told Australia's The Daily Telegraph that he doesn't try to pigeon hole his work into specific projects, explaining, "I don't write for something we call 'The Who,' with all its cumbersome history and theatrical stage songs. I just write music, or poems, or lyrics, or songs. If they work for Roger (Daltrey), or for me, we will record them. I may never manage to write such a song again, but as Endless Wire featured some of the most recent and least anthemic songs I've ever written. . . there's a good chance we'll find something when I'm done doing whatever I do in the summer of 2009."

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Bob Weir says that the Dead is hard at work getting the band in shape for their upcoming tour, and digging deep into its back catalogue for the band's first extended trek in five years.

Weir explained that they have been working on material(approximately 150 songs) that hasn't been performed live by the band since around the time of their Wake Of The Flood album...